Spanish Planes Search for Lost Migrant Boat as Canary Islands Toll Nears 1,000

Spanish rescuers on Monday searched the waters off the Canary Islands for a missing migrant boat carrying 200 people from Senegal. 

But aid groups said there are actually three boats missing on the Canary Islands route, carrying more than 300 people - including children. 

According to the aid group Walking Borders, two boats, one with 65 people on board and the other carrying between 50 and 60, have been missing for 15 days since departing Senegal, while a third boat that left port on June 27 with 200 passengers is also missing.

"The families are very worried. There are about 300 people from the same area of Senegal. They have left because of the instability in Senegal," Helena Maleno of Walking Borders told Reuters.

A spokesperson for Spain’s marine rescue service told the Associated Press it had been alerted to one missing boat on July 5 and was looking for the vessel. She said they had no knowledge of the other two missing boats.

The Canary Islands, off the West African coast, are the top destination for migrants trying to reach Spain, and summer is the busiest time for attempted crossings. An estimated 559 people, including 22 children, died trying to reach the islands in 2022. The toll in 2021 was 1,126.

This year is on track for more deaths. Spanish news agency EFE said that 951 migrants had died en route to the Canaries and other European islands in the Atlantic during the first six months of 2023–one every four and a half hours

Two missing boats departed from Mbour city on June 23 and the third left the southern town of Kafountine four days later, Maleno said. The Canary Islands are more than a thousand miles from Kafountine.

“The most important thing is to find those people,” Maleno said. “There are many people missing in the sea, this isn’t normal, we need more planes to look for them.”